Coating metal for wire-drawing



t t L STAT S ATENT Fries.

GEORGE W. WHYTE, OF ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN, ASSIGNOR, BY MESNE AS- SIGNMENTS, TO SAID \VHYTE, AND J OHI\ CAHILL, OF JOLIET, ILLINOIS.

COATING METAL FOR WIRE-DRAWING.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 340,023, dated April 13, 1886.

Application filed January 18, 1886. Serial No. 188,975. (No specimens.)

To all whom, it may concern.-

Be it known that I, GEORGE W. WHYTE, of Ann Arbor, Vashtenaw county, Michigan, have invented certain new and. useful Im- 5 provementsiuthe'lreatment of Iron for \Vire- Drawing, of which the following is a specification.

\Vhen iron is reduced by the drawing process. it is often necessary, in case a great reduction in diameter is desired, that the wire be frequently annealed and cleaned. If many successive drawings be effected without the intermediateannealingand cleaning, fractures will develop in the wire, the die will become I worn and roughened, and the wire will be roughened.

\Vire-drawing withoutintermediate an nealing and cleaning is termed hard-drawing, and has heretofore been applied with ordinary wire rods only to slight reductions in diameter.

In the execution of my improvements Isubject the rods or wires to be drawn to a coating process, which permits hard-drawing to be 2 carried further than has been possible heretofore.

I treat the wire or rod to be drawn to a bath of copper solution, with which isincorporated lime, alumina, or soapstone, alone or together.

The bath is applied to the rods by pouring or by dipping. After the rod or wire is thus treated it is dried, preferably in the baking oven. After the drying, the rod or wire'is subjected to the usual process of wire draw- 5 ing, except that itcan be drawn finer without fracture or roughening than has heretofore been the case.

The bath may be prepared in either of several ways. Thus a solution of copper chloride 40 may have added to it the lime or other added matter; or salt may be added to a solution of copper sulphate, (blue vitriol.) The chlorine of the salt combines with the copper and forms the copper chloride, while the sodium of the salt combines with the sulphuric acid and forms sodium sulphate. The lime or other matter may then be added, or it may have been put in with the salt; or a solution of copper sulphate and a solution of salt may be mixed, hot or cold, together with the lime, or alumina, 0 or soapstone. In thus making the copper chloride the solution may, ifdesired, be drawn off from the sodium-sulphate precipitate.

Muriatic acid added to the bath to acid reaction is found to promote the deposition of the coating upon the rod on wire.

The rod or wire becomes coated with copper in fine form, together with a fine powder of the 'lime, alumina, or soapstone.

The following formula may be followed with 5 satisfaction: Take copper sulphate about fifty per cent, by weight; alumina, lime, or soapstone, or a mixture of them, about ten per cent, by weight; water in quantity to form the slime; muriatic acid to acid reaction, and 6 heat the bath to about boiling. Apply, preferably hot, to rods or wire, dry the rods or wire, and wire-draw, as usual.

I desire to make mention of the fact that it is not new, broadly, to coat wire with a film 7o ofcopperto facilitate d rawing the wirethrough the die in its further reduction. To this I make no claim.

I claim as my invention- That improvement in the art oftreatiug rods 5 or wire in wire-drawing which consists in subjecting the rods or wires to a bath of copper solution and alumina, lime, or soapstone, drying the treated rods or wire, and then reducing the diameter of the rods or wire by wire -drawing process, substantially as set forth.

GEO. \V. \VHYTE.

Vitnesses:

J. W. SEE, W. A. SEWARD. 

